When he substituted Michael Owen with 15 minutes of a goalless match still to play, Thompson's neck was the part of his anatomy that was sticking out the furthest. If Manchester United had won, the buzzards that had begun to circle above his faltering fortunes would have picked over that decision until it had become the turning-point in Liverpool's season. Who knows, maybe it was.

Thirty years ago, Thompson was given his debut at the same stadium by the man who built the House of Anfield, Bill Shankly. It was for that very reason that Liverpool installed him as Gerard Houllier's assistant following the departure of Roy Evans in 1998. The club's chairman, David Moores, was insistent on maintaining a link with the Shankly era.

Thompson is still very much Houllier's assistant. His mobile phone bill bears the evidence. Even Tuesday night's match-winner, Danny Murphy, was inspired by a pre-match rallying call from the Corsican retreat where the manager is recuperating from heart surgery. Pinocchio has his very own Jiminy Cricket.

Liverpool have long employed a good cop, bad cop style of man management. Former players can still hear Ronnie Moran's voice bawling at them in their dreams. Thompson took sideline ranting to a new level of mania. Like some crazed evangelist, he bellowed and bickered his way into everyone's bad books. It was heartfelt, but headless. "Calm down! calm down!" as they are reputed to say on Merseyside.

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Thompson has listened. One senior player told me this week that they have seen a more human side to his nature. (He would prefer to remain anonymous, just in case Phil takes it as an insult.)

By design and by tradition, some things will never change at Liverpool. Pulling the wagons in a circle is the age-old response to criticism. Disparaging newspaper comments have always been pinned on the dressing-room door as motivational aids. Journalists have been barred from Anfield for far less than the opinions that have made Thompson a little prickly of late. It is not as if the acting manager has been afraid to own up to below-par performances and even show respect for Manchester United - not easy for a lifelong Liverpool fan.

And what are the reservations about this Liverpool team? That they lack width and adventure? People were saying exactly the same things a year and five trophies ago. And what if Thompson himself favoured a shift of emphasis and style? How could he justify major changes to the tried and tested formula of a man who will certainly return? At the risk of raising the resting manager's blood pressure, Liverpool did enjoy an improbable run of luck en route to their immense achievements. Perhaps it has evened out in recent weeks.

There are some on Merseyside who have not forgiven Thompson for Robbie Fowler's departure. It is an excuse as convenient as Houllier's absence. Fowler had not been a regular for two years prior to the training-ground spat that became the cover for a transfer sanctioned largely on financial grounds. If Liverpool had sold every player who had got lost in a red Mellwood mist at some time, they would never have won a thing.

A member of the England squad recently remarked on how little specific advice or instruction any player had received from Sven-Goran Eriksson. Instead, the England coach had brought a new air of calm to the camp, created a fresh environment. There is surely more to football management than that. Somebody has to take the decisions. But when matters of policy and strategy still lie principally with an absentee landlord, the caretaker's main responsibility is the daily upkeep of the kind of good habits and good spirits that made Phil Thompson a champion Liverpool captain. He has a nose for what is needed.